The craft of producing hand-made quilts has long been an American tradition. Generally, a quilt is composed of three layers, a top layer, a layer of batting, and a layer of backing. The top layer of a quilt may be a single layer of fabric, but is more often composed of multiple pieces of fabric sewn together end to end to form a single layer. In some quilt designs, small pieces of fabric are sewn together in a mosaic or patchwork pattern, while in others, the top layer is made up of individual squares, with each square containing some sort of design (possibly embroidered or composed of multiple pieces of material of different colors).
Underneath the top layer of the quilt is the batting. Batting is a filling or stuffing material. Modern quilts generally utilize some form of synthetic fiber-fill material (generally in a sheet form) as batting, although other similar materials (including both natural and artificial materials) that provide bulk and insulation to the quilt may be used. Beneath the batting is the backing layer, which is usually a single layer of fabric. The backing and top layers of the quilt are sewn together along their edges to form a seam that encloses the backing.
The process of “quilting” refers to the particular manner in which the three layers are sewn together. In addition to being stitched together with seams around the edges, quilts are stitched together at locations in the middle of the quilt as well. These “interior stitches” extend through all three layers of material and generally form some form of decorative pattern that complements the design of the top layer.
As is also the case with embroidery, is it difficult to produce attractive “interior stitches” without some convenient way to hold the material, since the needle must pass through both sides of the work. In embroidery, it is common to use round or oblong “hoops” to hold and stretch the material being embroidered into a generally planar configuration that is easy to work with. These hoops generally consist of two concentric hoops of some rigid material (such as wood, plastic, or metal), where the material to be embroidered is stretched over the inner hoop, and the outer hoop is placed around the material and inner hoop to hold the material against the inner hoop. Often the outer hoop will have a screw or other adjustment mechanism to allow the inner diameter of the outer hoop to be adjusted to allow the hoop to be tightened around the material and inner hoop.
Traditionally, quilters have employed quilting frames that are a close analogue of the embroidery hoop to position and hold their work. These frames, like embroidery hoops, are generally constructed in some rounded or oblong shape, but in a larger size, so as to accommodate the larger dimensions of typical quilts. In addition, quilting frames are usually constructed so as to be free-standing, to support the large size and weight of typical quilts. The traditional round or oblong quilting frame shape, however, suffers from a number of disadvantages. First, traditional round or oblong frames provide a limited work area in relation to their size. Second, since most quilts are rectangular in shape, the traditional frames do not conform well to the shape of the quilt. As a consequence of these first two disadvantages, a quilter must frequently reposition the quilt within the frame as work progresses. A third disadvantage of the traditional design is that the durability of the traditional frame is limited by the fact that the round or oblong outer hoop must be flexed in order to tighten or loosen the frame; this places limitations on the strength and useful operating life of such a frame. What is needed, then, is a durable quilting frame that provides a larger and more useful work area than is possible with traditional quilting frames.